Why Hire an Intern?

Hiring an intern is hiring an employee with the resources of an extremely qualified mentor group and a world renowned research library. For challenging questions and projects an intern has access to professors who can offer incomparable insight and guidance. In the same regard, the intern can on your behalf access the University of Washington’s library system, an advantage few companies or employees have.

Paying an Intern…

An intern is under no circumstances a source of cheap labor. The objective of an internship is to provide the intern with a learning experience. So if you provide the learning experience, why should you pay the intern? The best guidance for this question can be found on Fact Sheet #71 published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division. For small businesses adding an intern to the payroll may not be practical. Alternatively a company may pay the intern a stipend. Stipends are not considered wages and have no Federal Withholding Tax deducted.

Our recommendation is that a for-profit company considers paying the students a reasonable wage or stipend. Not-for-profit companies are generally exempt from paying interns.

Students wanting to earn academic credits:

In order for the student to be eligible to earn academic credits for the internship the company must be able to fulfill two requirements:

The intern must have a learning experience

The company must assign a knowledgeable supervisor to the intern

In most cases those requirements are easily fulfilled. If you have any questions, don's hesitate to contact us.